Pet owners may wish to place their pets inside a temporary housing to separate a pet from its normal environment, or build a permanent outdoor housing from pieces that are easy to assemble.
Various cage designs have been created, many of which are bulky and consume a large area of space while being stored. In order to overcome this problem, collapsible cages have been devised to allow pet owners to easily transport and store the cage in a compact fashion. However, many of these collapsible wire cage designs are burdensome to use as they are heavy and difficult to erect for use or to fold after use.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,720 to Doskocil describes a collapsible cage for housing an animal, the collapsible cage having an expanded position and a folded position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,688,256 discloses a portable animal enclosure that comprises a plurality of frame pieces. Each frame piece comprises two prongs for inserting into a ground surface to keep the frame pieces stable, a cross bar disposed between said two prongs, and a hoop portion disposed above said two prongs attached to said cross bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,123 describes an apparatus that comprises a plurality of transportable panels detachably coupled to form a rectilinear corral when assembled suitable for confining a pet. Each of the plurality of panels has a slot and two panels are detachably coupled by mated slots, and wherein one of the plurality of panels has a first side portion and an opposing second side portion, the first side portion having a first slot formed therein and the second side having a second slot formed therein.
The disadvantages with the existing art in pet enclosures are that the construction may be complex, as described in the '256 patent, or the enclosure does not break down to component parts, as in the '720 patent. Or the structural options available may be limited as in the '123 patent.
A need exists for an improved, easily assembled cage that addresses these deficiencies.